1. Field of the Invention
The present invention concerns a press-fit printed circuit board connector.
2. Description of the Prior Art
A press-fit connector comprises an electrically insulative body carrying a series of right-angled pins whose proximal branches (relative to the printed circuit board) are essentially perpendicular to the board and have a profile enabling them to be force-fitted into through-plated holes in the printed circuit and whose distal branches are essentially parallel to the board and configured as male or female connecting members.
In theory the pins are forced-fitted into the through-plated holes of the board once and for all, but it is possible to demount the connector two or three times, to carry out repairs for example. The connecting members carried by the distal branches of the pins are intended to provide an essentially demountable electrical connection, typically in the form of a socket on one side of a casing enclosing the electronic circuit board on which the connector is mounted.
A press-fit connector is usually mounted on the board by pressing directly on the bent portions of the pins in order to force them into the aligned through-plated holes.
A first drawback of this operation is that it requires tooling specific to each connector in order to apply pressure simultaneously and uniformly to each pin of the connector.
Another drawback of these known connectors is that, after the pins are completely forced into the through-plated holes and after the pressure on the mounting tool is released, because of the removal of the load and because of the permanent deformations to which the various parts of the connector are subjected the insulative body carrying the pins is slightly spaced from the surface of the board, by a more or less random amount, rather than remaining perfectly in contact with the board.
The gap is found to be particularly disadvantageous in practice because the mechanical stiffness of the connector-board coupling depends on the perfect placing of the insulative body against the board and because the gap degrades the dimensional accuracy with which the male or female connecting members carried by the distal branches of the pins are positioned.
These connecting members are essentially parallel to the board and if the connector is not pressed perfectly against the board the axis of the connecting members is offset radially relative to the position that it should occupy, so impeding the subsequent obtaining of a satisfactory mechanical and electrical coupling: the consequence of this is that when the board fitted with its connector is placed in the casing adapted to receive it the connecting members will not be accurately located relative to the casing at the exact position that they would have occupied if the connector insulative body had remained perfectly in contact with the board surface.
One object of the invention is to remedy these various drawbacks by proposing a new press-fit connector structure which does not require any dedicated tooling for mounting it on the board, with correlative advantages of simplicity and low cost, and which also guarantees that the insulative body carrying the pins is systematically placed so that the geometrical position of the connecting members relative to the casing is perfectly defined.